Monday, August 4, 2014

Chicken Coop Reveal

It's pretty much finished. Oh, there are a few more things I want to do. But I'm happy now to share our chicken coop with you. The original post of the coop when we started can be found here.

I saw a similar sign on Etsy for $35. I thought it was adorable, but didn't want to fork over the cash. I had a piece of sheet metal lying around, so I made my own.

I added landscape timbers & rocks to cover up the hardware cloth apron. I found some metal wall art too. I'm not in love with the butterflies and will probably change them in the future...

This is really the look I'd like to achieve...but I am still looking for metal flowers & an old wagon wheel and maybe an old window.

Here is the gravity fed watering system. The hose from the 5 gallon bucket attaches to a pvc pipe mounted inside the coop. Then there are poultry nipples screwed into the pvc pipe. We have 24 chickens and I have to fill the bucket about every third day. Here's the link that helped me build it: Bucket Waterer

Please step with me inside the home. Here we have the master bedroom. And if you're wondering where the master bathroom is, well, you're looking at that too. Chickens may produce fantastic, yummy eggs but they are horrible housekeepers.

King size chicken bed/roosting area. I had to replace my original poop hammocks, shown here. While they cleaned up well, the plastic material was not very durable. After a few months they had several holes & tears. So I've replaced them with this sturdy outdoor fabric which also has some water repellent properties. I even sprayed them with scotch guard. So far, I've only cleaned the hammocks once, but they came out great. The fabric dries very quickly too. Plus, I like this fabric pattern much better. Functional & pretty - is that too much to ask?

I just love this vintage hand-embroidered wall hanging I found for $6 at a thrift store. It has all the right colors. I am still tempted to find a place in my own home for this. Or maybe I'll get lucky and find another one, something similar. The fun is in the hunt!

Now we move over to the nesting area. Everything pictured is from a garage sale or thrift store. It was such fun hunting for the old, pretty plates. I really wanted a small dresser to covert into a nesting area - and yesterday I found the perfect piece: FREE - on the side of the road!! My husband is wonderful - we were driving through town and I looked down a side street and yelled "Stop! Turn around!" He just smiled and helped me load it up. He either thinks I'm cute or crazy, I haven't figured out which. So pretty soon I'll have another cool piece of furniture to add to the Living Room, I mean nesting area.

Doesn't this little cabinet just scream "NESTING BOX" to you? I picked up this beauty at the thrift store for a buck. After a little sanding & altering & painting it was perfect. This piece has a funny back-story. I posted the before/after photo of it on facebook and one of my friends says, "That's my daughter's table! We put it on the side of the road!" Apparently someone else picked it up and donated it to the local charity thrift store. I love my small town!!

The basket is screwed into the top of the cabinet so it won't tip over when the chickens perch on the edge.

The wooden eggs show the chickens where we'd like them to lay their eggs. Chickens instinctually want to add eggs to an existing nest.